Fretting about an expensive saw

[Andy P Devon]

Thing of buying an expensive, named saw but worried about when it goes dull.
Watched you tube videos on sharpening ad nauseum. Seems tricky.
Have tried sharpening some vintage saws off eBay but they seem to be never as sharp as a B+Q throwaway saw.
Now find myself stuck - don't want to splash out a lot of money.
Surely I'm not the only person out there with this quantry? Just one hidden nail away from ruining an expensive saw with no repair option.
Can someone talk some sense to me?

 

[Nigel Burden]

Keep practicing sharpening your od cheap saws. Or buy cheap hard point throwaways.

Personally I would keep trying to sharpen the cheap saws. You will still have to sharpen the expensive one when it dulls.

It's a bit like buying a Karl Holtey plane for thousands of pounds. It'll work well straight out of the box unlike a cheap plane, but it won't work any better than a blunt Stanley Bailey once it loses it's edge. You still have to sharpen it to get it cutting again.

Nigel.

 

[D_W]

Thing of buying an expensive, named saw but worried about when it goes dull.
Watched you tube videos on sharpening ad nauseum. Seems tricky.
Have tried sharpening some vintage saws off eBay but they seem to be never as sharp as a B+Q throwaway saw.
Now find myself stuck - don't want to splash out a lot of money.
Surely I'm not the only person out there with this quantry? Just one hidden nail away from ruining an expensive saw with no repair option.
Can someone talk some sense to me?

This saw is rip or crosscut?

A rip saw (presuming joinery) is going to be usable for quite some time (and I'm not sure where you're worrying about hidden nails, but if you're using recovered cheap materials that might have nails, I wouldn't use boutique saws or planes in it).

This is a good time to develop a fascination in how tools work and why they're sharpened a certain way so that you can free yourself from the concern and commit to working only with properly sharpened tools.

And if this saw is going to be rip, and it's a good one, and new, then use it and do your reading between now and when it needs sharpening. Perhaps buy an older saw of the same type if you find one with good teeth and a good tooth line. The newer type, if with perfect teeth, will need very little when it needs to be resharpened.

 

[Doug B]

Will the purchase be a new saw? Doesn’t the manufacturer offer a sharpening service,? If not look for one that does, I believe Skelton saws do also Badaxe.

 

[MikeG.]

If you can't sharpen a saw, send it to a professional saw sharpener. There are people offering such services all over the place, and it only costs a few pounds.

 

[thetyreman]

it's worth learning how to sharpen the saws, a rip cut is much easier, it only takes a right size file and a bit of patience, just be extra careful not to do too many strokes, on a well made decent saw you can just follow the pattern that's already there, one or two strokes should be all it needs, there are some good videos by paul sellers about it, including one about how to sharpen a brand new saw, the difference as he shows you is amazing, literally half the strokes so half the effort.

 

[Racers]

Do you send your planes and chisels away to be sharpened?

Its not to difficult, a pair of strong reading glasses helps alot.

Pete

Pete

 

[lurker]

....and good lighting

 

[lurker]

This is just a guess based on my own meagre experience.
I assume you have a saw set and are happy using it?

There is a good argument for sticking to hardpiont saws particularly if nails are involved.

By the way, we are not discussing back saws are we???

 

[MikeG.]

Do you send your planes and chisels away to be sharpened?......

Of course not, but I did used to send my saws away. The fundamental difference is that you might sharpen a plane or chisel twice in a day, but you'll only likely sharpen a saw twice in a year. If the sharpening is what puts you off using or owning a saw, all I'm suggesting is that there is a stop-gap alternative whilst you learn to do it yourself.